Non-overlapping and Inverse Associations Between the Sexes in Structural Brain-Trait Associations

Stam, Daphne; Huang, Yun‐An; Stock, Jan Van den

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00904

Cited by 14 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 59 publications

(79 reference statements)

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“…So, the difference in personality between genders has a sex-specific neural basis. In our study, what we found is consistent with Stam et al (2019): the difference in implicit gender stereotypic attitudes between male and female have a sex-specific association with the target region, the mPFC. We demonstrated the causal relationship between the mPFC and gender stereotypes by modulating the activity of the mPFC.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…In terms of the neural substrates of gender difference, Stam et al (2019) demonstrated that brain structure-personality associations are dependent on sex. Specifically, in some brain regions, there were inverse associations between temperament and regional gray matter volume (GMv) in males and females, and the brain regions related to gender and temperament were non-overlapping.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Gender Difference in Gender Bias: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Reduces Male’s Gender Stereotypes

Wang

Guo

et al. 2019

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Stereotypes exist in the interactions between different social groups, and gender stereotypes are particularly prevalent. Previous studies have suggested that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in the social cognition that plays an important role in gender stereotypes, but the specific causal effect of the mPFC remains controversial. In this study, we aimed to use transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to identify a direct link between the mPFC and gender bias. Implicit stereotypes were measured by the gender implicit association test (IAT), and explicit prejudice was measured by the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI). We found that male and female participants had different behavioral and neural correlates of gender stereotypes. Anodal tDCS significantly reduced male participants’ gender D-IAT scores compared with cathodal and sham stimulation, while the stimulation had an insignificant effect in female participants. The reduction in male participants’ gender bias mainly resulted from a decrease in the difference in reaction time (RT) between congruent and incongruent blocks. Regarding the explicit bias measurement, male and female participants had distinct attitudes, but tDCS had no effect on ASI. Our results revealed that the mPFC played a causal role in controlling implicit gender stereotypes, which is consistent with previous observations and complements past lesion, neuroimaging, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies and suggests that males and females have different neural bases for gender stereotypes.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Difference in Gender Bias: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Reduces Male’s Gender Stereotypes

Wang

Guo

et al. 2019

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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“…Irrespective of observer's gender, happy female but angry male walking with subtle emotional expression is most often mistaken for neutral locomotion (42). The neurobiological mechanisms underlying such gender differences remain to be clarified, including potential differences in grey matter volume (43) and effective and anatomical white-matter connectivity (6,44,45).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain circuits signaling the absence of emotion in body language

Sokolov

Zeidman

Erb

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Adaptive social behavior and mental well-being depend on not only recognizing emotional expressions but also, inferring the absence of emotion. While the neurobiology underwriting the perception of emotions is well studied, the mechanisms for detecting a lack of emotional content in social signals remain largely unknown. Here, using cutting-edge analyses of effective brain connectivity, we uncover the brain networks differentiating neutral and emotional body language. The data indicate greater activation of the right amygdala and midline cerebellar vermis to nonemotional as opposed to emotional body language. Most important, the effective connectivity between the amygdala and insula predicts people’s ability to recognize the absence of emotion. These conclusions extend substantially current concepts of emotion perception by suggesting engagement of limbic effective connectivity in recognizing the lack of emotion in body language reading. Furthermore, the outcome may advance the understanding of overly emotional interpretation of social signals in depression or schizophrenia by providing the missing link between body language reading and limbic pathways. The study thus opens an avenue for multidisciplinary research on social cognition and the underlying cerebrocerebellar networks, ranging from animal models to patients with neuropsychiatric conditions.

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“…Women tend toward better social and linguistic skills, while men tend toward higher physical abilities combined with technical, spatial, and navigating (Tay et al, 2019). Inborn essentially driven behavioral differences in the brain are thus limited to factors surrounding reproduction (Stam et al, 2019;Joel & McCarthy, 2017;Arnold et al, 2004).…”

Section: Canalized Reproductive Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Differences between the sexes for emotional processing are well-acknowledged (Kreukels & Guillamon, 2016). Behaviours related to reproduction are recognizable in differences in the levels of responses such as sociability, attachment, sentimentality (Stam et al, 2019), aggression (Zell et al, 2015), in defend or befriend (Hoekzema et al, 2017;Sokolowski & Corbin, 2012;McCarthy et al, 2012;Pearson et al, 2009;Zietsch et al, 2008), instinct (Sweatt et al, 2013), and significantly empathy (Swain et al, 2007).…”

Section: Care Of Offspringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex vs Gender: Are We there Yet? A Biological Location for Gender, not Sex.

Woodhill¹

2020

Preprint

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Research to date has left unexplained what may seem indefinable-gender identity. This article synthesizes important research that has not previously presented a case for a biological location of gender in the human phenotype. While gonadal sex and sexual orientation are accepted as emanating from genetic and hormonal templates, gender's existence currently has so far emanated from a nebulous 'somewhere' in the brain. Recent hypotheses have argued there is no natural dichotomy of gendered behavior and proposed a merging of otherwise distinct categories for sex and gender into a mosaic of sex/gender (Joel & McCarthy, 2017; Joel et al. 2016; Joel, 2011). However, this seems to detour around nonphysical behavior relevant to reproduction. This paper makes an original case for the sense of gender as neurophysiological and specifically centered within the reproductive axis. This fits in well with this current understanding of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences on sexual identity (Joel et al., 2020) and with the earlier biopsycho-social approach (Eagly & Wood, 2013) now favored in research into identity diversity.

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Non-overlapping and Inverse Associations Between the Sexes in Structural Brain-Trait Associations

Cited by 14 publications

References 59 publications

Gender Difference in Gender Bias: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Reduces Male’s Gender Stereotypes

Gender Difference in Gender Bias: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Reduces Male’s Gender Stereotypes

Brain circuits signaling the absence of emotion in body language

Sex vs Gender: Are We there Yet? A Biological Location for Gender, not Sex.

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